Floor plan semi-detached house - Planning bathrooms and laundry room

My approach to the topic of "separability" was as follows: 1. Basic consideration of what goal I am pursuing with it. For me: In old age, I want to live on the ground floor and rent out the upper floor. This meant not only that I placed an extra socket here and there, but also that I designed the ground floor to be age-appropriate. 2. Discussion of the first preliminary draft with a very experienced planner who has done a lot of age- and disability-appropriate planning. When I asked whether it was disability-appropriate, he first had to laugh out loud and immediately went to get another beer. Since then, I only speak of "as age-appropriate as possible" because "disability-appropriate" is a whole different league. He also forbade me to use the word "wheelchair-accessible," but for non-technicians it is the fitting word. 3. Age-appropriate optimization of the ground floor, from the property boundary through the entire house and all rooms into the garden. Because what good is a low threshold at the terrace door if I can’t even get into the house in the first place? That’s why my door platform is unusually large and next to it is an unobstructed open space for a wheelchair-accessible ramp. To fit the ramp there, of course, there had to be no basement window. The basement window, in turn, supports the ventilation, and the devices carry all the house connections... so this triggers a whole series of changes. And this is just one example of many — from door width to turning radii to the very tricky bathroom. 4. Once the plan had taken shape, I printed out all the floors (yes, on paper, just like in the '80s) and then drew in all floors, considering the load-bearing walls, the potential separated use (yes! really! with colored pencils! on paper!) and thought through all the routes, i.e. how do I get from outside into the kitchen, how do guests get into the living room, how do I get from the bedroom to the toilet, etc. 5. Many iterations and considerations whether I want to accept disadvantages now for a possible later different use, or how I can avoid them. Just one example of many: A later kitchen needs a water connection. Of course, I can simply install this in the wall — but then the water would stand there for years. Not good. The electrical installation is easier: I have already invisibly prepared a heavy-duty connection cable at the future second entrance door under the wall, meaning they only need to open that part of the wall later and the cable harness for door opener, intercom, light, etc., will be ready. 6. Once the rooms were planned for both the first and second setup, the connection planning came next. Wow, that was fun, and I drove not only all the trades but also the construction manager to the brink of madness. For example, I now have the stove connection socket in my dressing room (future kitchen upper floor), and between the dressing room and bedroom on a precisely measured strip there is no underfloor heating, so that an additional wall can be anchored in the floor there without drilling through the underfloor heating. 7. Today you actually don’t see any of it. Most likely, the male guests are thrilled that we have a urinal in the ground floor bathroom. That already has advantages now, and it uses both space and water connections that will later be used for a washing machine placed there. That was now the very short short version which only contained a few selective examples. So I want to say "separability" is not something you just draw in like a window.

Are there any bigger plans coming? Screenshots are obviously too small.

Age-appropriate also means building practical and not complicated. That has advantages even in young and healthy years, compared to letting labyrinthine self-drawn plans be made.

What is the likelihood that you will ever be dependent on a wheelchair? I find such an approach a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. And what about your wife? Does she still have space in the ground-floor apartment? Will she have to be co-disabled?

If there is money, you can invest a lot in your house and run half apartments under plaster. Others are happy if they can afford even a few additional power outlets beyond the minimal standard.

Whether one puts oneself through planning a house like that is one thing. However, I think that has very well described what, in the final consequence, should also be considered regarding this "secondary use".

I feared that such answers would come and, contrary to the effort put into the planning, I very much regret having taken the trouble to describe it here.

I find it a shame to have to justify forward-looking planning.

In this thread, my actual intention was only to show that "separability" is not something you see in [Schöner-Wohnen] and then just copy-paste into the building plan. If at least that was understood, then that is something.

One never plans to be disabled (I also thought I had explicitly written that it was only about age-appropriate options, not disability-appropriate ones) or to grow old or to have ailments. I have experienced with my parents and parents-in-law what it is like when the apartment is not built for that – I ask for forgiveness for this experience and consideration of the same.

I did not build my house for the next five years but for longer. I do not find it ridiculous at all to think a little further ahead here and there, and I also thought I had written that what is a pre-installation can also be used immediately, such as a urinal, for example. I have laid many pipes in reserve in my house and was already very grateful for them before moving in because then I had the pipes that my general contractor forgot, and without them, the outer wall would have had to be channeled again for the photovoltaics. Many things have by no means turned out to be a limitation but rather a stroke of luck – for example, the shower in the ground-floor bathroom is used frequently and is by no means a massacre with piratical means but is actually quite practical, especially in summer. Also, the fact that not everything is so tight is by no means a disgrace now.

So feel free to laugh at my age-appropriate planning or my many cables – I laugh too because I have been very glad about it several times already and I regret nothing.

And what about your wife? Does she still have space in the ground-floor apartment? Will she have to be co-disabled?

Sorry, but I find that downright intrusive.

you misunderstood something and I hope my private message clarifies it. on the topic: it is of course nice if you can build so large that the house can later be divided or age-appropriate as you imagine. we have already had some discussions here where the original poster either has a child in a wheelchair or will later be in a wheelchair themselves because they suffer from a disease that causes it. then you naturally have completely different conditions for your planning because you know what you need. basically, however, your planning is restricted if you want to cover everything in your mid-20s, from a household with children, couple life, age- or barrier-free and if possible also divisible. you won’t be happy with that in the long run. but to come back to this thread, I have the feeling it is being hijacked: we have here 8x10, so just under 70 sqm on one level. these should be thoughtfully divided for a 4-person household. whether this has been successful here is another question (I’m still waiting for better photos where the dimensions are readable to me). that the ground floor level is to be separated later results in roughly 15 sqm being lost. and you just have to ask yourself if it is worth taking the “space” from the nice semi-detached house it has. because mini bathrooms are not nice to use when you’re older - you actually want a bit more comfort. but I have the feeling that the original poster was a bit annoyed by the rambling?!